Europe’s current ‘heat dome’ that is splashing ‘Code Red’ warnings across much of the continent is having a big effect on glaciers as well as people.
While people are being cautioned to stay indoors, stay hydrated and other measures, the already-shrinking ice caps don’t have those options, with possibly serious consequences for the future.
The Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network says that while a couple of days of intense heat don’t change the melt rate significantly, high heat for more than two weeks—which has happened now—does. Matthias Huss, head of the network says that “the melting is massive, even in the highest peak regions.”
Huss reported that “Our data shows that right now, about 400 cubic meters of water per second are flowing from the glaciers. That’s equivalent to filling an Olympic-sized swimming pool every six seconds, day and night, for at least these two weeks of heatwave.”
Other European countries with mountain regions have similar problems, but Switzerland has seen the fastest glacier loss already, with 1100 glaciers disappearing completely since the 1970s.
